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Which Search Engines Will Survive?
Author: Dan Thies
Which Search Engines Will Survive?
by Dan Thies

With the recent bankruptcy of Excite@Home, and Altavista's
admission that their search engine database hasn't been updated
since July, it's clear that another round of consolidation is
coming upon the search engine industry.

The important question for marketers isn't necessarily which
portals will survive, but which search engines will drive their
search results.

Excite and Altavista clearly attract enough traffic to ensure
that *someone* will keep those domain names active as search
portals, but that doesn't mean that there will be an independent
Altavista or Excite database behind those results.

Is Lycos A Textbook Case?
The story of the Lycos search engine is instructive - Lycos.com
is still there, but the actual search results are provided by
FAST/AllTheWeb. We simply don't know who will be providing the
results for Altavista and Excite in a year

So the big question remains: which players can afford to stay in
the game, and how does that affect our search engine positioning
plans? Time will tell - I can only offer you informed
speculation on the fate of the industry's major players.

Who's In?
Google, Inktomi, FAST/AllTheWeb, and DirectHit. All of these
have significant traffic, either directly or through their
partners, and enough value in their databases to stay in
business, at least for a while. DirectHit is different, since
they don't attempt to crawl and index the web, but they have
strong partners, including MSN.

Who's Out?
Altavista, Excite, and Lycos were big players at one time, but
we know the story now. Altavista and Excite are close to death,
and Lycos has already dropped their database. Northern Light may
maintain an independent database, but their traffic is minimal.

Who's Too Small To Matter?
Northern Light, Wisenut, etc. - there are still a few minor
search engines out there, and at least some have sound business
fundamentals that will keep them from disappearing. In the big
picture, though, they simply don't command much traffic.

What Does It Mean?
For starters, there will likely be only three significant search
engine databases - a year ago there were at least seven.
Interestingly, all three use "themes" to categorize and rank
websites.

As a result, a solid search engine positioning strategy should
focus on providing the three things that the three major indexes
and DirectHit reward: consistent theme; significant content; and
high-quality linking relationships.

A consistent theme means careful keyword selection and use - not
trying to make every page stand alone, but instead weaving them
together in a logical fashion.

Good content not only reinforces the theme, it also provides a
reason for visitors to stay on the site longer, which improves
DirectHit ratings.

Finally, the quantity of incoming and outgoing links will matter
less over time, while the context and quality of those links
will continue to become more important, ensuring that the major
directories will have plenty of customers for a long time.

I wish you success...

About the Author

Dan Thies has been helping his clients (and friends) promote their websites since 1996. His latest book, "Search Engine Fast Start," is available at http://www.cannedbooks.com

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